Sunday, September 14, 2008

And the war drags on . . .

Eight Kurdish pesh merga soldiers were killed in a roadside bombing in a disputed part of eastern Diyala Province on Saturday, adding to tensions with the Iraqi government and local Arabs over the Kurds' presence in the area.[. . .]The Kurdish presence in Khanaquin, and in other nearby areas, has been a growing source of tension. Kurdish forces have been moving the borders of their semiautonomous region in northern Iraq, in what they say is an effort to improve security.But the move has been viewed by many Iraqi and American officials as a threat to stability in areas that are already prone to violence.

The Iraqi TV crew brought the gifts that had come to be the trademark of their reality show: some basic household appliances and a delicious supper to break the Ramadan fast for a family of little means.They'd done it many times before. But this episode didn't get made. Gunmen seized four of them from their vehicles, hauled them down the street and executed them.The show is called Your Iftar on Us, after the Arabic word for the evening feast, and it airs on the privately-owned Sharqiya network. It didn't have much in the way of production values but it had a wide following. People watched it because it made them feel good.

Reporters Without Borders is appalled and saddened by the murder of four employees of privately-owned TV station Al-Sharqiya (photo,AFP) yesterday in the northern city of Mosul. Al-Sharqiya's news director noted that the murders followed a smear campaign against the station by state TV broadcaster Al Iraqiya."We condemn the abduction and murder of the three Al-Sharqiya journalists and their driver and we call for a thorough investigation into the circumstances," Reporters Without Borders said. "The comments by Al-Sharqiya’s news director make such an investigation all the more urgent."The Al-Sharqiya TV crew - consisting of Mosul bureau chief Musab al-Azawi (the son of a parliamentarian), cameramen Ahmed Salem and Ihab Maad and driver Qaidar Suleiman - were kidnapped by gunmen at midday while filming in the central Mosul neighbourhood of Al-Zenjili for a programme about Ramadan, which began two weeks ago. Their bullet-riddled bodies were found in a nearby district later yesterday.The sequence they were filming would have shown Al-Sharqiya bringing food and gifts for a poor family for the Iftar, the meal with which the daily fast is broken every evening during Ramadan. The station broadcasts to Iraq by satellite from Dubai.

With other reported deaths over the weekend, that makes for at least 37 Iraqis dead. In addition the US military announced the deaths of more US service members.

They're just there to try and make the people free,But the way that they're doing it, it don't seem like that to me.Just more blood-letting and misery and tearsThat this poor country's known for the last twenty years,And the war drags on.-- words and lyrics by Mick Softly (available on Donovan's Fairytale)

Last Sunday, ICCC's number of US troops killed in Iraq since the start of the illegal war hit the 4,155 was the number. And tonight? 4157. Today the US military announced: "A Multi-National Division - Center Soldier died this morning of non-combat related causes." And they also announced: "A second Multi-National Division - Center Soldier died this morning of non-combat related causes. The soldier died of wounds Sept. 14 at a Coalition forces Combat Army Support Hospital." Just Foreign Policy's counter estimates the number of Iraqis killed since the start of the illegal war to be 1,255,026 same as last Sunday.

Turning to some of the reported violence . . .

Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) reports (today) a Baghdad mortar attack on the Green Zone, a Baghdad roadside bombing that claimed the life "of the commander of the Sahwa in Furat neighborhood" and left four other people wounded, a Baghdad car bombing that claimed 2 lives and left six wounded, another Baghdad roadside bombing that wounded three people, a Diyala Province roadside bombing that claimed the lives of 5 police officers (five more left wounded), a Falluja roadside bombing that claimed 1 life (and left two police officers wounded) and, dropping back to Saturday night, a Baghdad car bombing that wounded six people. On Saturday McClatchy's Hussein Kadhim reported a Baghdad roadside bombing that wounded four police officers, a Baghdad roadside bombing that claimed 3 lives and left five wounded, a Baghdad car bombing that wounded four people, a Baghdad roadside bombing that wounded three and a Baghdad car bombing that wounded six people.

Shootings?

Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Mosul home invasion that left three people wounded. Saturday McClatchy's Hussein Kadhim reported a Friday night Basra attack that claimed the life of 1 person and left three more injured. Reuters notes a Sunday attack "on a publishing house" that resulted in four people being wounded and 2 police officers shot dead in Mosul on Saturday while 1 guard was shot dead in Iskandariya on Saturday. Saturday Reuters noted 1 real estate broker shot dead in Kirkuk, a Mosul home invasion in which a husband and wife were shot dead.

Parliament on Sunday suspended legal immunity for secular Sunni lawmaker Mithal Alusi, opening him up to possible felony charges for traveling to Israel last week to participate in an international counterterrorism conference."Are you holding me accountable for not hiding secrets? For being honest? For not walking behind the curtains?" he demanded of his colleagues Sunday. "It is better than visiting in secret."Alusi is the only Iraqi politician in recent years to publicly visit Israel, a country declared an enemy of state by Iraqi law, and he used the occasion last week to accuse Iran of sponsoring terrorism and interfering in Iraqi affairs. At the end of his appearance he called for relations with Israel and other nations to fight terrorism.

About Me

We do not open attachments. Stop e-mailing them. Threats and abusive e-mail are not covered by any privacy rule. This isn't to the reporters at a certain paper (keep 'em coming, they are funny). This is for the likes of failed comics who think they can threaten via e-mails and then whine, "E-mails are supposed to be private." E-mail threats will be turned over to the FBI and they will be noted here with the names and anything I feel like quoting.
This also applies to anyone writing to complain about a friend of mine. That's not why the public account exists.